Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-02-16
PREHISTORIC AFRICA.
The Remarkable Ruins Found Among
the Huts of Savages.
From the New York Sun.

! Inc remarkable Ruins Found Among
the Huts of Savages.
From the New York Sun.
The readers of Mr.. Haggard's new
story "She," will remember that whec
his little party of adventures passed
in their boat from the sea into an
East African river, they found on the
bank a wall of stone that had evident.
ly been a soldly constructed wharf in
some remote period. In foot note
he lustiies this conceit by alluding to
the ru1ns OF very ancient city on the
coast at Kilwa, south of Zanzibar.
1t happens that 500 miles nearer the
region in which hehas placed his story
| there are evidences of past civil
zatlon that are incomparably greater
than those he mentions.
Some way south of the Sambesi
River there is ~ largeSregion extending
from the sea nearly 400 miles inland,
and 800 to 400 miles toward the
south, In which ruins are constantly
being discovered, proving that in pre-
historic times the country was inhab-
tied by civilized people. To-day only
the rudest black tribes inhabit this
land; save In few places where Portu.
guese have established stations. The
little beehive huts of the natives are
seen among massive ruins betOkening
degree of architectural skill which
rivals that of the ancient Aztecs. Our
knowledge of these ruins is still far
from perfect. Our earliest records of
travel and trade on the east Africa
coast, extending back to the beginning
OF the Christian era, do not mention
them. Only in recent years have the
travels of Selous, Erskine, Mauch,
Baines, Mohr and O'Neill revealed to
us the monumental evidence this coun-
try contains.
The coast town Sofala is shown on
all maps of East Africa. Near that
town Carl Mauch found extensive
ruins remarkable for their enduring
nature and strange shapes. There are
partly ruined walls, still thirty feet
high and twelve feet wide at the base,
quilt OF small hewn blocks of granite.
In these walls, sometimes fifteen to
twenty feet from the ground, are en-
bedded one end or blocks of stone
eighteen to twenty feet long, which
were evidently used to support gal
Ava AOO' Lulu csAQ OuAU III Ul0
walls Or standing by themselves, are
round stone towers which evidently
rose to heights of thirty to fifty feet.
Similar masses of masonry are found
as far as $50 miles inland and little
north, near the coast.
1t is not positively known yet who
built these ancient structures. No
trained arch@ologist has visited them,
and no search has yet been made for
inscriptions, though o NELL says he has
no doubt from what he has recently
heard that there are numerous in
scriptlOns on the ruins about Manica
All these ruins are surrounded by sur.
face gold mines. 1t is believed that all
this country was occupied some time
before the Christian era by a. great
colony, probably of Phmnician origin,
and that it's chief occupation was gold
mining.
Mr.. O'Neill says that those numerous
ruins are nearly as well preserved as
those of ancient Egypt, and better
than those of Assyria. Some day, no
doubt, they will be systematically
studied. Their existence shows con-
clusively that large region in inner
Africa, now gwen up to savage men
and wild beasts, was subject many
centuries ago to the control of peo-
pie who were considerably advanced
in the arts of civilization.